Video Clip of the Quarter

July 2010The work of the Census History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP) project was featured in the documentary film “Into the Deep: America, Whaling, and the World,” which aired on PBS stations in the U.S. on Monday, May 10, 2010. “Into the Deep” highlights the 300-year saga of the American whaling industry and the unique relationship between American whalers and the giant creatures they hunted. The trailer and entire documentary (15 chapters) are available on the PBS website: www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/whaling/. An interview with Dr. Tim Smith, Census and HMAP researcher, is also available at www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/interview/whaling-smith/.

March 2010The Census project NaGISA, short for Natural Geography in Shore Areas, is an international collaborative effort to inventory and monitor biodiversity in the narrow inshore zone of the world’s oceans at depths of less than 20 meters. The project recently posted a video of their researchers diving at Arrival Heights in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. In the video you can view an example of NaGISA sampling and even see a curious Weddell Seal in the researchers’ dive hole when they return to the surface. To watch the video, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt9HxM0Hpi4

September 2009Happy Birthday Darwin! To celebrate Charles Darwin’s 200th birth year, and the 150th anniversary of his publication On the Origin of Species, VPRO (a Dutch public broadcaster) is assembling a 35-part series called “Beagle: On the future of species.” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cop_cFrME0) The project will reconstruct Darwin’s five-year long voyage on the HMS Beagle over the course of one year, departing September 1, 2009. The project will attempt to assess where the world stands today in light of Darwin’s theory on evolution. The entire voyage, and any resulting scientific discoveries, can be viewed on the VPRO website at http://beagle.vpro.nl/

June 2009Check out the video that won 1st place in the 2009 National Ocean Sciences Bowl “Living on the Ocean Planet” Video Contest, sponsored by NOSB and CoML. The video (available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp_vOGWJbgE) entitled “Our Oceans, Our World” by Jorie Heilman and Erick Kao from Lexington High School in Lexington, Massachusetts highlights their ideas on the importance of marine biodiversity. To learn more, read the cover story in this issue of our newsletter or visit www.nosb.org/

December 2008We bring you all the lightheartedness and frivolity that YouTube has to offer. Enjoy and happy holidays! Surfin’ Santa Wipes Out – www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAbFWE1cruk

August 2008Ok, ok, it’s not YouTube. But we thought that ‘The Luminous Deep’, was such a great animation that we had to put it in here. The video is created by two students from the Duncan of Jordanstone Art College in Dundee, UK, with help from researchers at Aberdeen University’s Oceanlab and shows the organisms and processes associated with a humpback whale fall. During the animation, you will learn how the carcass of a dead whale that sinks to the ocean floor nourishes a large interconnected community of scavengers and predators. Many of the creatures attracted to the whale fall are bioluminescent, meaning they produce glowing lights in the dark abyss. It’s an excellent educational tool! Please view the video at http://imaging.dundee.ac.uk/animation2008/luminousdeep.html

May 2008Our video clip of the quarter comes from an interview on CNN with our very own Dr. Pat Halpin, who is heading up the Mapping and Visualization effort for the Census of Marine Life. In this video, Dr. Halpin discusses the importance of the Census of Marine Life and the information it provides us – with some great maps thrown in of course! This interview is one of many efforts by our Education and Outreach team to reach a broader audience with news from the Census projects. Way to go Pat – http://comlmaps.org/video/cnn.swf/view

February 2008This quarter’s video is a clip that recently aired on National Geographic’s “Wild Chronicles” series. The video features CoML Program Manager, Jesse Ausubel. The Census looks forward to more collaboration with National Geographic as we work towards the 2010 Synthesis. To view the video, please visit www.youtube.com/user/censusofmarinelife#p/c/67804C1EF260F55D/12/lEtXaS4_4Us.

December 2007The Census of Marine Life is excited to present their new video on Ocean Observing technologies (www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXXzvGJCVAc), which first premiered at the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Summit in late November in Capetown, South Africa. Using photo-realistic techniques, the video highlights the need for the ocean observing technologies developed by the Census of Marine Life. After only one day, the video had 176 views on YouTube and has received high rankings in the Science and Technology categories. Additionally, the Partnership on Observation of the Global Oceans has created a similar video, which can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5hnhNmGeh0

August 2007The Encyclopedia of LifeOur YouTube link this quarter highlights a very innovative and exciting new effort, not just in the scientific community, but globally: the Encyclopedia of Life. This video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NwfGA4cxJQ) was shown at the May 9th 2007 launch of the Encyclopedia of Life (EoL). The EoL is an unprecedented, collaborative scientific effort to provide an online database for all 1.8 million species now known to live on Earth. The effort is spurred by a $10 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and $2.5 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. CoML is very excited to be part of the Encyclopedia of Life by helping to populate the marine species pages! For more information on EoL, please see www.eol.org/.

May 2007Al Gore’s popular film, An Inconvenient Truth, isn’t the first documentary to be made about global climate change. Click on the following link to watch a clip from The Unchained Goddess, a documentary made in 1958: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lgzz-L7GFg.